Learn Latin from the Romans: A Complete Introductory Course Using Textbooks from the Roman Empire

by Eleanor Dickey

Learn Latin from the Romans is the only introductory Latin textbook to feature texts written by ancient Romans for Latin learners. These texts, the 'colloquia', consist of dialogues and narratives about daily life similar to those found in modern-language textbooks today, introducing learners to Roman culture as well as to Latin in an engaging, accessible, and enjoyable way. Students and instructors will find everything they need in one complete volume, including clear explanations of grammatical concepts and how Latin works, both British and American orders for all noun and adjective paradigms, 5,000 easy practice sentences, and over 150 longer passages (from the colloquia and a diverse range of other sources including inscriptions, graffiti, and Christian texts as well as Catullus, Cicero, and Virgil). Written by a leading Latin linguist with decades of language teaching experience, this textbook is suitable for introductory Latin courses worldwide.

Genres: Nonfiction

526 pages, Hardcover

Published June 28, 2018

Reviews

[Drianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a disappointment this was. I've been looking forward to this textbook for years, and I had such high (perhaps impossible to meet) expectations for it, but it in no way lived up to them. So so sad :(

Basically, it's a grammar-translation method book, similar to Wheelock, et al, but with some (short) reading passages in each chapter drawn both from the various colloquia that Dickey has been working on for years now and from standard Roman authors. There are some very idiosyncratic choices in the presentation of the grammar (including things like starting with the 3rd conjugation for verbs; introducing the perfect passive participle really early, like Chapter 10-ish, but not doing the ablative absolute until like 50 something?; delaying the 3rd declension until halfway; and on and on), that make little intuitive sense to me. It requires a ton of memorization work from the student, which is on purpose, of course, but I can't imagine even a college student wanting to do all that. The passages are okay, but the lack of extensive reading means it's little to no improvement over Wheelock.

And the book has no macrons aside from vocabulary lists and paradigms, which makes no sense since there's an entire paragraph in the introduction haranguing students about the importance of learning them. The explanation is that students learn to read Latin words as sight words, and that they won't recognize them in grown-up texts then without macrons, but then... don't use u/v distinctions either, because most grown-up texts don't? Bah.

I had been envisioning, I suppose, something more focused on the colloquia themselves, which would inductively lead the students to understanding how Latin works. That's not this book.

So sad.

[Eavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marking as read though I've only got about a fourth of the way in. I used this for a Latin 100 course I took for fun this term; I actually really liked this book precisely for how grammar heavy it is and the amount of exercises she includes. She isn't perfect at describing the more complex grammatical ideas but I guess that's what a professor is there for. By the end of each chapter I really felt prepared for quizzes and exams 👍 All being said, I take Latin to read things, not speak things, and I love grammar, so YMMV!

[Xueqi Sun · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely not the best textbook I've used. Glad I've finally finished this long journey.

[Eyan]

Used for a Latin course through school. The examples were often confusingly worded with instructions that could be misconstrued, and because I can't find anywhere to check answers it's not a great tool for self learning.

[Alex Cotterill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good with book with lots of practice sentences but sometimes explanations aren’t helpful. Also, a lot of time, especially during the later stages, she doesn’t repeat previous content with material that it relates to so you have to keep looking backwards and forwards